? 
[Entered according- to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by the Rural Publishing Company, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
(<$arm 2; ops. 
A NEW METHOD OF PRESERVING CORN 
AND OTHER GREEN FODDER. 
BY A WESTERN FARMER. 
Necessity of more thrift in feeding stock in the 
West; cheapness and great value of green-corn 
fodder; method of growing and preserving it 
for a long time f a temporary “ silo," its con¬ 
struction and management; a permanent silo; 
ration of preserved fodder for cattle. 
The resources of the g reat western States are 
not economically husbanded. The same may 
be true of the East, but in the West the wastes 
are larger and more apparent. There is an ex¬ 
cess of abundance, in fact, and we pour our 
A SILO FRESHLY FlI-LYt' AND COVERED. 
superabundance out with a lavish hand in the 
use of it. To some extent this waste pays, or 
rather it would not pay to spend labor, which is 
costly, in saving and using fodder, which is 
cheap. But things are changing very rapidly 
in this respect, and to husband and spend all 
our produce in the most economical manner 
will soon be indispensable to thrift, if not to 
the solvency of the farmers. Many Western 
farmers now cook their corn in feeding it to 
hogs and stock, who formerly threw it out 
lavishly upon the bare ground. 
But corn is rarely grown for fodder alone 
either in the West or in the East, yet it may be 
made one of the most valuable feeding crops. 
Forty tons of roots per acre are considered a 
very large crop, but forty tons of green-corn 
fodder, worth more than the roots, may be as 
easily and more cheaply grown than the same 
quantity of the latter. And by a new process 
of preserving it, it may be kept fresh and suc¬ 
culent for a whole year, if need be. This 
method is a French and German practice, not 
new in those countries, but it is of recent in¬ 
troduction here, and will undoubtedly become 
common as soon ns its usefulness and value 
are known. The method is as follows: 
The corn is planted in rows as closely as may 
be to procure the heaviest growth. When 
the growth is the most vigorous and succulent 
—which is when the ears are still soft and full 
of milk—the crop is cut down. It is hauled 
directly to the barn and run through powerful 
fodder cutters, which reduce it to a fine chaff. 
In this condition it is packed into pits, called 
SILO AFTER TWO MOSTHB. 
“ silos,” which are trenches dug in the earth, 
with sloping sides, about six feet deep and 
wide, and as long as may be required. The 
cut fodder is tightly packed in this trench, aud 
is heaped up as high as possible in the manner 
shown at Fig. 1. It is covered with a layer of 
straw, aud then with two feet of earth, well 
packed down, to exclude air. The success of 
the operation depends upon the complete ex¬ 
clusion of the atmosphere, when a fermenta¬ 
tion occurs in which the starch of the fodder is 
convened partly into sugar, and the sugar 
partly into alcohol and some acid. The indi¬ 
gestible portions of the fodder are changed into 
soluble matter to a considerable extent, and 
the whole mass undergoes a transformation 
into a brownish substance retaining its perfect 
shape and consistence, but much more solid 
and compact than formerly, and having an 
agreeable vinous odor, sometimes with con- 
BILO AFTER SIX MONTHS. 
siderable mild acidity. After two months, the 
mass shrinks and settles into the shape shown 
at Fig. 2; xnd after six months, into that 
shown at Fig. 3. 
During this settlement great care is to be 
taken to watch the covering and close every 
crack that may appear through which air 
might penetrate to the mass of fodder, and 
convey germs of moldiness or decomposition. 
When the pits are opened for use, this is done 
at one end and the cured fodder is cut down with 
a large knife, fig. 4, (an improved form of which 
will be seen in our advertising columns), as it 
is wanted for consumption; the cut surface 
being left compact and smooth. A frame of 
tight boards, to exclude air, is placed against 
the cut surface (fig. 5), and it is supported by 
a prop, as shown. This frame is moved along 
as the fodder is consumed, the earthen cov¬ 
ering being thrown upon one side out of the 
way as the fodder is uncovered. The “silo” 
should open into the building, preferably a cel¬ 
lar, in which Its contents arc to be used, and a 
truck upon wheels may be employed to trans¬ 
port the fodder to where it is required. 
PERMANENT SILO WITH ROOF, TRAMWAY AND TRUCK. 
Permanent silos are made of brick-work, or 
cement concrete upon the floor and sides, and 
are covered with a roof for protection (fig. 6). 
They may also have a tram-way laid in the 
bottom for the passage of a light truck. A 
convenient place for the silo would be adjoin¬ 
ing a cellar under a barn and opening into it 
by a door. Very similar constructions are 
used by Eastern dairymen for preserving 
brewery grains during the summer, aud the 
method of preserving these iB precisely the 
same in every respect as that above described 
for corn fodder. A permanent silo may also 
be built wholly above ground, of brick, with 
cement liuiug, uud covered by a roof. Such 
constructions as these are becoming common 
among French farmers, who practice the sys¬ 
tem of ensilage. Many of these put away 500 
to 1,000 tons of fodder every season, feeding 
100 or more head of cattle. 
A usual daily ration is 50 pounds of the pre¬ 
served fodder for a large fattening beast, with 
more or less of grain; aud 40 pounds for a 
milking cow, with rutions of bran or other 
additional feed. The uutritive quality of the 
fodder is increased in proportion to the reduc¬ 
tion of the water contained in it, so that 40 
pounds of it would be equivalent to about 80 
pounds of the fresh fodder. The preserved 
fodder is consumed with keen relish and is 
remarkably healthful. 
I should have said that salt, at the rate of 
one pound to the thousand of the weight, is 
sprinkled upon the cut fodder, as it is packed 
away ; and this tends greatly to the preserva 
tion of it. 
Pairg Jjusban&rs. 
NEW STYLES OF PUTTING UP BUTTER. 
T. XI. HOSKINS, M. D. 
A growing change in public taste for butter; 
its advantages to the dairyman; consequent 
change in the style of faitler packages; the 
Tinkham puckage ; the Kenerson package. 
There has never been a greater 1 -evolution 
in the butter trade that the sudden demand 
that has sprung up for new butter, fresh-made 
butter, to the exclusion of even tbe best tubs 
of •• entire lots” of a season’s make from first- 
class dairies. Accompanying this is a change 
of taste, to some extent, as regards the salt¬ 
ness of butter, so that, iusteadof the old stand¬ 
ard of one ounce to the pound, we are told by 
dealers to reduce the amount to three-quarters, 
half, and even in some cases to only a third of 
an ounce of salt to each pound of butter. 
FleJST 
KNIFF. FOR CUTTING FODDER. 
Whence this sudden change in the tastes of 
our city customers has come, it would, per¬ 
haps, be difficult to tell. It is probably, how¬ 
ever, a European importation. Our cultured 
and traveled fellow-citizens who have returned 
from the Paris Exposition, having brought 
over from France the Parisian taste for freshly 
made and lightly salted butter, have set a 
fashion that has rapidly spread among the 
“would-bcs”—those not able to go abroad 
themselves, who console themselves by adopt¬ 
ing, as quickly as possible, the foreign notions 
which their more fortunate neighbors bring 
home along with the “ true Parisian accent.” 
However this may amuse us, we, as dairy¬ 
men, have no reason to complain of the new 
fashions iu butter. In this time of small 
profits, it is lucky that thus we may at least 
have quick returns, and as butter is never any 
better than when first made, we are also saved 
the risks of great deterioration, a mishap from 
which wo are never exempt, even with well- 
made butter, and which is both the 6ure and 
rapid fate of all other kinds. 
With this change in taste comes a demand 
for a change in the style of putting up our 
butter. Hardly anybody now wants to buy a 
fifty, or even a thirty-pound tub. The call is 
for five aud teu-pound packages, aud already 
the Vermont dairymen, at least, are respond¬ 
ing to this call in various ways. I will give 
the readers of the Rural au account of the 
two plans now coming rapidly into use among 
those who make a “gilt-edged” article for the 
Boston market. 
The first is what are known as “ Tinkham 
Packages." first introduced—and aot patented— 
by O. M. Tinkham, the agricultural editor of 
the Green Mountain Freeman, and one of the 
first to introduce Jerseys into Vermont. Mr. 
Tinkham lives iu the town of Pomfret, where 
the manufacture of fauey butter has been for 
many years a specialty, and where, probably, 
the largest prices received by auy Vermont 
choice butter. Heretofore this has been sent to 
market in 25-pound tubs. But the call for 
fresh and frequent supplies, both by families 
aud the fancy-grocery trude, has stimulated 
the ingenuity of our Pomfret friends, and has 
resulted in the plan devised by Mr. Tinkham. 
This consists of rectangular boxes, joined firm¬ 
ly at the corners by the sort of square dove-tail¬ 
ing which the Crandall blocks and other toys 
have made familiar. These boxes are made of 
spruce, to hold five and ten poundB of butter, 
aud have either a sliding cover or a simple lid. 
A sort of tasteless wood paper is used to line 
the boxes, aud the butter, when weighed, is 
firmly pressed into them, the top neatly smooth¬ 
ed, aud the maker’s stamp or monogram im- 
ressed upon its surface. These boxes are placed 
iu a refrigerator until the butter has become 
very firm; they are then packed in cases, 
which are lined—top, bottom and sides—with 
hair felting, and, thus protected, they arrive at 
market in perfect order, even in the hottest 
weather. In cool weather the lined cases are 
of course not needed. This style of butter 
package is very acceptable for families and the 
best retailing trade, and has been adopted, 
with slight variations, on many dairy farms 
throughout the State. 
It will be seen that Mr. Tinkham’s method, 
while it is adapted to the family and grocery 
demand for small packages, does not meet the 
requirements of the small-print trade, which is 
considerable aud increasing. This has been 
effected recently by an invention—patented— 
of Mr. James B. Kenerson of Peacham, Vt. 
His boxes are made and joined like Mr. Tink- 
ham's, but are flatter, being intended for only 
one layer of prints. They are. I think, about 
an inch and three-quarters deep, very neatly 
made, with sliding covers. They are made of 
different sizes, adapted to the priuts they are 
to hold. Those I have seen were for 20 and 
40-quarter-pound priuts, thus holding respect¬ 
ively five aud ten pounds of butter. I suppose 
there can be no patent on the boxes themselves ; 
this I think is limited to the stamps, which I 
shall describe, with a rough sketch. For the 
five-pound boxes the stamp is divided into*five 
sections, thus: 
REMOVAL OF THE FODDER. 
dairyman have been realized for small prints— 
two and four-ounce—sold to first-class hotels 
and restaurants in Boston. Besides those en¬ 
gaged lu producing this specialty, there is a 
considerable number of the Pomfret farmers 
who supply families in the large cities with 
The' edges of each division are very much 
raised, and made thin, with a tapering edge, 
so that when the stamp is pressed upon the 
butter in the box. it is divided throngh half 
its thickness, and a stamp having been pressed 
upon it four times, the finished box appears thus 
Before packing the butter into the box, it is 
lined with a fine muslin cloth, wrung out of 
clear brine, and a similar cloth is laid over 
the top before the cover is put on. The con¬ 
sumer, or the retailer in selling less than a box, 
cuts tbe priuts apart with a knife along the 
deep divisions made by tbe stamp. This method 
of putting up fauey priuts has been extensively 
adopted iu Caledonia County, aud meets with 
great favor in the Boston market. It is claimed 
that the expense is but a trifle more than that 
of tubs, the prices being for five ten-pound or 
ten five-pound boxes and crates, at the fac¬ 
tory, only fifty and sixty cents respectively 
The crates are plain and cheap. Iu warm 
weather it might be better to use Mr. Tink- 
haui's more costly felt-lined return cases, 
mentioned above. 
The dairymen who have made use of either 
VOL. XXXVIII. So. 5. I 
WHOLE \<>. 1314 I 
NEW YORK CITY. FEB. 1, 1879. 
(PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
\ #4.00 PER YEAR. 
